RETAIL
Sainsbury’s buys Home
British supermarket group Sainsbury’s PLC yesterday said it had clinched a £1.4 billion (US$2.01 billion) takeover of Home Retail Group PLC, owner of catalogue chain Argos. The cash-and-stock offer is aimed at creating a “multi-product, multi-channel” business, the pair said in a joint statement. Argos sells household items, including TVs, furniture and gardening tools. The deal was expected to complete in the third quarter of this year, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
MACAU
Casino revenue falls 16.3%
Casino revenue fell more than analysts’ estimates last month as mainland gamblers dissipated after February’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday. Gross gaming revenue decreased 16.3 percent to 18 billion patacas (US$2.3 billion), according to data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, marking 22 consecutive months of declines. That compares with the median estimate of a 15.5 percent drop from six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and a fall of 0.1 percent in February.
SOUTH KOREA
Exports fall 8.2 percent
Exports fell 8.2 percent last month from a year earlier, figures showed yesterday, the 15th decline in a row. A 13.8 percent drop in imports resulted in a trade surplus of US$9.8 billion, up from US$7.4 billion in February. Meanwhile, consumer prices rose 1 percent last month from a year earlier, less than 1.3 percent the previous month, the government’s data showed. The latest export and inflation numbers reinforce the view that the Bank of Korea will ease monetary policy again this year, said Sue Trinh, the Hong Kong-based head of Asian currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada.
UNITED KINGDOM
House prices rise 0.8%
House prices increased for a ninth month last month as rental investors rushed to purchase property before a tax increase, Nationwide Building Society said. The average price of a home rose 0.8 percent from February to £200,251, the lender said in a statement yesterday. The annual rate of growth surged to 5.7 percent, the strongest in more than a year. A shortage of homes for sale is being aggravated by landlords trying to buy investment properties before a tax change on second homes takes effect this month.
SPAIN
Deficit target missed
The government on Thursday said it failed to meet its budget deficit target last year, despite a recovering economy. The nation’s deficit for last year hit 5.2 percent of annual economic output, despite a pledge to the European Commission for a 4.2 percent deficit. Acting Minister of Finance Cristobal Montoro blamed the overspending on Spain’s autonomous regions. Only three of 17 regions met their spending targets as the deficit hit 56 billion euros (US$63.4 billion).
SHIPPING
APM to invest in Morocco
The world’s biggest shipping company is taking advantage of low industry prices to build its business across units. A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S (APM) unveiled its latest venture on Thursday, when its APM Terminals unit said it will invest 758 million euros in a Moroccan port facility. That follows the closing earlier this month of the unit’s US$1 billion acquisition of a Spanish rival, and an almost US$1 billion deal in Mexico.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks